Pattern to select last occurrence using python

Question

    s="""04-09 11:11:57.879 D/PTT [STACK]( 1653): *********Sending request
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): *********
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): S: abcd 
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): l: jockey
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): k: sucess
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): j: 82
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): 
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): MESSAGE TO BE SENT IS
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): Not doing anything
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): Not doing anything
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): Not doing anything
    04-09 11:11:57.879 D/PTT [STACK]( 1653): *********Sending request
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): *********
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): S: abcd 
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): l: Donald
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): k: sucess
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): j: 83
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): 
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): MESSAGE TO BE SENT IS
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): Not doing anything
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): Not doing anything
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): Not doing anything
    04-09 11:11:57.879 D/PTT [STACK]( 1653): *********Sending request
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): *********
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): S: abcd 
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): l: Mickey
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): k: sucess
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): j: 84
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): 
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): 
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): MESSAGE TO BE SENT IS
    04-09 11:11:57.879 D/PTT [STACK]( 1653): *********Sending request
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): *********
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): S: abcd 
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): l: Donald
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): k: sucess
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): j: 83
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): 
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): MESSAGE TO BE SENT IS
    04-09 11:11:57.879 D/PTT [STACK]( 1653): *********Sending request
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): *********
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): S: abcd 
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): l: jockey
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): k: sucess
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): j: 82
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): 
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): MESSAGE TO BE SENT IS"""

    exepat= re.compile(".*Sending request.*?Donald.*?TO BE SENT IS",re.DOTALL)

    reout = exepat.findall(s)

    print reout[0]

Expected Output:
    04-09 11:11:57.879 D/PTT [STACK]( 1653): *********Sending request
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): *********
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): S: abcd 
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): l: Donald
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): k: sucess
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): j: 83
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): 
    04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): MESSAGE TO BE SENT IS

I need a pattern to extract requests which have "Donald" in between "Sending request" and "MESSAGE TO BE SENT IS".In the above example two requests contains "Donald".So reout list should have 2 items.

unutbu · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-11 09:21:34Z

1

Put parentheses around the part of the match you want to find:

exepat= re.compile(".*Sending request(.*)TO BE SENT IS", re.DOTALL)

for reout in exepat.findall(s):
    print(reout)

yields

04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): *********
04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): S: abcd 
04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): l: jockey
04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): k: sucess
04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): j: 84
04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): 
04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): 
04-09 11:11:57.879 [STACK]( 1653): MESSAGE

Without parentheses (defining a group), findall is just returning the whole string because the whole string matches the pattern.

The docs explain:

Return all non-overlapping matches of pattern in string, as a list of strings. The string is scanned left-to-right, and matches are returned in the order found. If one or more groups are present in the pattern, return a list of groups.

edited Apr 11, 2013 at 9:21

answered Apr 11, 2013 at 9:16

unutbu

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Eugene · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-11 09:26:18Z

0

Since you need the last occurrence:

.+Sending request(.+)TO BE SENT IS.*?$

answered Apr 11, 2013 at 9:26

Eugene

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